Pulitzer_ A Life in Politics, Print, and Power - James McGrath Morris [191]
In the fall of 1897, Brisbane and Joseph broke up also. Brisbane yearned to write a column, with a byline, in the Evening World, over which Pulitzer had given him dominion. However, Pulitzer was unbending in his prohibition of signed editorial columns. Brisbane went ahead with his plan anyway. An angry Pulitzer suspended him. It was hardly a punishing move, now that the Journal’s doors were open to any disgruntled editor from the World.
Hearst offered to put Brisbane in charge of the Evening Journal and to give him a high enough salary to repay the $8,000 in advances he had taken from Pulitzer, with the promise of a bonus for a circulation increase. Brisbane would remain with Hearst for thirty-nine years and would become the nation’s highest-paid editor and one of its best-read columnists.
The social season at Bar Harbor was in full swing. “August follows in the wake of July with an array of brilliant events that must almost turn the summer girl’s head,” said one giddy society columnist. The Pulitzers joined in by giving Lucille a lavish coming-out party. Joseph, who continually complained about Kate’s extravagances, agreed to spend $10,000 on the event. Chatwold “was transformed into a fairyland,” according to one newspaper in Maine. More than 120 guests attended, most leaving with party favors—canaries in cages.
Lucille made a classic debutante. She had Kate’s abundant brown hair, sought-after porcelain skin, and her father’s deep-set eyes, which conveyed an air of melancholy. “She was a most beautiful young girl, spiritual of face and distinguished in manner and with talents seldom equaled by a society girl of the Bar Harbor colony,” said one observer. Of all his children, Lucille was the one who had not disappointed Joseph. She was most like him and the most willing to follow his social proscriptions and educational prescriptions. In comparison with her sisters, she took little interest in society and instead applied herself to her studies, learning to speak half a dozen languages, play musical instruments, and draw.
Not long after the lavish soiree, Lucille developed a fever and complained of other ailments. Doctors diagnosed typhoid fever, which she had probably contracted from contaminated food or water. Cables summoned more doctors, including many of the physicians who had attended Pulitzer in New York and Europe. Nurses were assigned to Lucille’s care twenty-four hours a day. Using steam and electricity, the house was heated and moistened like a tropical greenhouse. Despite everyone’s best efforts, the disease took its brutal course.
In October there was some improvement in the girl’s health. “Thank God,” Pulitzer wrote to his friend Tom Davidson, “Lucille is better and we are again hopeful of her convalescence.” Merrill told Brisbane the good news. “I am sure you know that I am very glad of that,” Brisbane wrote to Kate, “very glad for Lucille’s own sake and very glad to think that you are free from worry.” It was a false hope. The patient’s condition worsened again, and by December there was little optimism in the house. “Poor Lucille is still very ill and I need not tell you that I have been worried almost to death,” Pulitzer wrote to Davidson. “I have a frightful headache and am sick at heart and all broken up by Lucille’s grave condition.”
As the winter holidays neared, Lucille rallied. She had made sure that each family member had a present. The Pulitzers spent Christmas Day together in her bedroom, joined by some of the household help to whom she was attached. Joseph, feeling more confident about Lucille’s condition, made plans to move on to Jekyll Island